State Pension Age: Can financial savings from age increase outweigh potential impact on pensioner poverty?
The Government stands to save £10bn from increasing the State Pension age to 67.
The latest planned increase in the State Pension is due to be phased in between April 2026 and 2028. A further increase from age 67 to 68 is expected to be phased in over two years from April 2044.
Meeting details
The Work and Pensions Committee is to question the Minister for Pensions, Torsten Bell MP as it completes the evidence-gathering stage of its inquiry into the Transition to State Pension age. He will be joined by senior leaders from the Department for Work and Pensions.
Any headline saving comes with a health warning that poverty could double among people in the year before qualifying for the State Pension, as happened on the last occasion that the age was increased. MPs will question the Department on what the Government has learned from this experience and examine any preparations being put in place.
As projections for life expectancy reduce, MPs will explore whether the planned increases reflect demographic pressures. Issues around setting a universal age and how to keep older workers, particularly those with health limitations, in employment will also be considered.
Several independent reviews of the State Pension age have been carried out since the 2014 Pensions Act. The Committee will seek an update on the progress of the most recent review, by Dr Suzy Morrissey, which is expected to report this Spring.
Torsten Bell MP was appointed Parliamentary Secretary in HM Treasury and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Work and Pensions in January 2025. Before entering Parliament last year, he was the chief executive of the economic thinktank, the Resolution Foundation.
Other issues that the Committee has scrutinised recently, for which he has oversight include the Government’s response to Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s (PHSO) report on Women’s State Pension Age Communication and financial assistance to members of defined benefit schemes on which there is currently no indexation. It may be that the Committee takes the opportunity to get an update on these matters.